Cicitt

The Cicitt are extremely long and thin goat sausages made for roasting, which come from the Valleys of Locarno. There are several hypotheses involving the origin of the term cicitt. The most probable one is the one inserted in the Vocabolario dei dialetti della Svizzera italiana (the dictionary of the dialects of the Italian part of Switzerland), which states that the term derives from cicia, meaning ciccia, meat.

An elderly lady from Cavergno, whose memories date back to the 1920s, states that the name of the sausage comes from the call the farmers used to make so to recall the goats: “Ci, ci, ci...”. According to yet another version, cicitt evokes the sound made by the sizzling of the sausage when grilled. The history of this product is tightly linked to the history of the goats in the Locarno Valleys, which once upon a time were like the cows for the poor. Documents from the ‘50s state that the villages of the Locarno Valley were invaded by goats: they were everywhere, even on the roofs of the houses.

Practically all families, in November, organize the so-called mazza minore, that is to say the slaughtering of the goats, so as to produce the cicitt. The Slow Food Association created a presidium for the cicitt of the Locarno Valley. It is the second cantonal presidium, straight after the zincarlin of the Valle di Muggio. (Written by The Swiss Culinary Heritage Association, www.patrimoineculinaire.ch and the Slow Food Presidium, slowfood.ch)

The goat meat gastronomic festival in November features the preparation of various gastronomic delicacies to valorise and showcase this local product.